Most Taiwanese have felt the pinch of inflation surges and have cut back their spending on non-essential items in the past two years as the nation’s consumer price index hovers well above the central bank’s 2 percent target.
Taiwan’s inflation rate last year climbed 2.5 percent year-over-year. Elderly people in particular are feeling the burden of inflationary pressures as the first price gauge for seniors soared 2.8 percent annually, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics’ (DGBAS) inflation data released last week show.
In 2022, the price increases felt by elderly people were even higher at 3.12 percent compared with 2021, versus the national inflation rate of 2.95 percent, according to the DGBAS’ pilot price program for elderly people, launched in 2019.
The price data on elderly people are becoming increasingly important for the government in drafting new welfare policies and building a safer social security net as Taiwan transitions into becoming an aged society with a rapidly rising population of people aged 65 years and older. By 2025, Taiwan is projected to become a super-aged society, meaning that people aged 65 years and older would make up 20 percent of the nation’s population and 37.5 percent in 2050, up from 18.37 percent last year, National Development Council statistics show.
Like the aging populations in the US and Japan, high inflation is eating into the purchasing power of elderly people and leading to food and medication cutbacks. The DGBAS attributed higher costs of food and non-medical care to greater inflation risks for elderly people. Those two categories made up significant portions — about 26 percent and 12.7 percent — of elderly people’s living expenses. Food prices climbed 4.04 percent last year, while non-medical care and other expenses rose 6.48 percent, the data showed.
Housing-related costs such as rent and electricity bills also made up a large chunk of their spending, accounting for 33.6 percent, DGBAS data show.
To help elderly people, low-income families and disadvantaged groups cope with rising inflation, the Ministry of Health and Welfare plans to beef up protection against inflation by boosting subsidy budgets by 7 percent this year to total NT$131.39 billion (US$4.24 billion), starting from 2020. The ministry reviews the subsidy payments every four years based on the nation’s inflation trend.
To some extent, the benefit increase should provide respite to elderly people, as the 7 percent benefit increase still lags behind the 8.16 percent price increases for elderly Taiwanese from the 2020-2023 period, leaving elderly Taiwanese anxious, data compiled by the DGBAS show.
As disabled elderly people who live alone face greater risks from price hikes, with food prices in particular, social workers have called for quick action to raise food subsidies. The Ministry of Health and Welfare in September last year responded positively and increased food subsidies from NT$80 to NT$100 per meal.
The ministry also increased transportation subsidies for social workers taking care of elderly people. However, it has also raised the bar for new applicants. Only low-income households are eligible to receive food subsidies. In the past, people aged 65 and older with middle-to-low incomes were eligible to apply for the meal subsidies.
It is also good to see the effect spreading, with local governments following the central government’s lead by giving a boost to food and other subsidy budgets for elderly people from disadvantaged families.
The government should consider amending related laws and give more flexibility to allocate government funds for immediate and sustainable support to better protect elderly Taiwanese and disadvantaged groups from losing buying power, as well as to build a safe social security net.
There is much evidence that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is sending soldiers from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — and is learning lessons for a future war against Taiwan. Until now, the CCP has claimed that they have not sent PLA personnel to support Russian aggression. On 18 April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinskiy announced that the CCP is supplying war supplies such as gunpowder, artillery, and weapons subcomponents to Russia. When Zelinskiy announced on 9 April that the Ukrainian Army had captured two Chinese nationals fighting with Russians on the front line with details
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), joined by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), held a protest on Saturday on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei. They were essentially standing for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which is anxious about the mass recall campaign against KMT legislators. President William Lai (賴清德) said that if the opposition parties truly wanted to fight dictatorship, they should do so in Tiananmen Square — and at the very least, refrain from groveling to Chinese officials during their visits to China, alluding to meetings between KMT members and Chinese authorities. Now that China has been defined as a foreign hostile force,
On April 19, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) gave a public speech, his first in about 17 years. During the address at the Ketagalan Institute in Taipei, Chen’s words were vague and his tone was sour. He said that democracy should not be used as an echo chamber for a single politician, that people must be tolerant of other views, that the president should not act as a dictator and that the judiciary should not get involved in politics. He then went on to say that others with different opinions should not be criticized as “XX fellow travelers,” in reference to
Within Taiwan’s education system exists a long-standing and deep-rooted culture of falsification. In the past month, a large number of “ghost signatures” — signatures using the names of deceased people — appeared on recall petitions submitted by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) against Democratic Progressive Party legislators Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶). An investigation revealed a high degree of overlap between the deceased signatories and the KMT’s membership roster. It also showed that documents had been forged. However, that culture of cheating and fabrication did not just appear out of thin air — it is linked to the
RSS